Dufferin approves 7.3 per cent tax levy hike

There was a fair bit of drama in the air, but county council eventually managed to chisel Dufferin’s 2013 budget down to an about 7.3 per cent tax levy hike.

Although some councillors locked horns during the about one-hour long discussion on Thursday (Dec. 13), most acknowledged a double digit tax levy hike — the proposed increase started the night out at 12.2 per cent — wasn’t going to cut it.

How best to shave down to a single digit tax levy increase was an entirely different affair though. Some councillors wanted to give Dufferin’s various committees another crack at cutting from their budgets, while others set their eyes on slashing about $2.1 million off the county’s proposed capital roads budget.

From Shelburne Mayor Ed Crewson perspective, the county’s budget was as bare boned as it could get. The logical alternative, he said, was to delay a road project.

“We have already taken the macerators out of the Dufferin Oaks budget,” Crewson said. “There is nothing left to strip away.”

In fact, Crewson was correct. With the county staring down the barrel of a proposed 12 per cent tax levy hike on Thursday, East Garafraxa Mayor Allen Taylor noted Dufferin’s plan to upload waste collection from its lower-tier municipalities was responsible for about 10 per cent of the increase.

When uploading waste responsibility to the county, the move was supposed to be offset by budget savings at the lower-tier level. For example, Shelburne and Orangeville are each proposing tax levy reductions for 2013.

“Two per cent of that number we’re talking about is caused by the increase at the county level,” said Taylor, chair of the county’s Community Development Committee (CDC). “I want honest numbers. The increase to the taxpayers of Dufferin for services minus the garbage is two per cent, not 12 per cent.”

Initially, Crewson suggested the county take about $2.1 million away from repaving a portion of County Road 11 scheduled for 2013. While he did receive support from some of his colleagues around the table, the Shelburne mayor didn’t receive enough.

“How do you think your scotch gets to Shelburne?” asked Mulmur Mayor Paul Mills. “By roads. We’ve been trying to keep up with this 18 km of road per year and that is a very tough job to do.”

Amaranth Mayor Don MacIver argued county council shouldn’t just haphazardly cut millions from the budget. He urged the county’s committees be given a chance to adjust their budgets, and report back to county council next month.

“This is getting a little bit into the ozone layer. Everyone who speaks tonight is bringing more and more information that is relevant to the budget cuts,” MacIver said. “A 30-day delay means nothing in terms of the budgeting process.”

When all was said and done, county council withdrew $1.4 million from its Dufferin Eco Energy Park (DEEP) reserve fund, which the county had set aside to build a road running into the future facility in Grand Valley.

At this point, it is not known when that road will ultimately need to be constructed. The county has been filling that DEEP reserve with gas tax money from the federal government.

“We’ve been working on (DEEP) since 1980-when,” Taylor said. “That is a fundamental shift in how we planned to finance that. If and when it comes time to develop the road to the DEEP project, we’re coming back for money here from the general budget process, not from gas tax money.”

After it was approved, the move to take about $1.4 million from the DEEP reserve managed to bring the proposed tax levy hike down to about eight per cent.

Taking new growth rates into effect, which Dufferin’s treasury department expects to be about 0.7 per cent, and the county’s tax levy will increase by 7.3 per cent.

An average Dufferin household with a property assessed at $325,000 will be paying $1,310 on the county portion of their tax bill next year, which is about $90 more than they did in 2012.

Then again, the 7.3 per cent tax levy hike approved on Thursday is a little misleading, according to several members on county council. If it weren’t for repercussions of the Dufferin’s waste upload being added onto the leger, county council would actually be bringing in a tax levy reduction of a little more than one per cent.

“In fact, a 9.5 per cent (increase) is coming from the waste management transfer,” said county treasurer Alan Selby. “So, everything else is actually now in the negative.”